App tracks firefighting assets

As the worst fire in Colorado's history sweeps across thousands of acres, an interagency wildfire management organization has begun deploying a Web application to manage firefighting resources online.

Through the National Interagency Resource Ordering and Status System (ROSS), agencies that fight fires can go online to order everything from food to airplanes, said ROSS project leader Jon Skeels of the Forest Service.

The system also provides users with up-to-date information on the delivery status of their orders, he said.

'Right now, we have a big fire, and the news says that we are short on resources,' Skeels said. 'But it may be that we have a lack of information on the resources that we have.'

Six thousand dispatchers spread across 400 dispatch and coordination offices nationwide will use ROSS. The system was developed by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, which is made up of federal agencies such as the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as state forestry agencies.

The Forest Service, which coordinated development of the system, has spent $7 million on the project each year since 1997.

The system uses Apache HTTP Server Version 2.0 freeware, which can be downloaded at httpd.apache.org, to host Web applications.

The system's data is stored in an Oracle8i database that resides on IBM RS/6000 and Netfinity 6000 servers running Microsoft Windows 2000. The servers are located at the Agriculture Department's National IT Center in Kansas City, Mo.